"Now almost every artist outside of New York is connected with some school or some museum school, and even in New York the majority are. That's an interesting fact when you take the idea of making money, making a living selling paintings. Only a dozen or two painters do that"
About this Quote
The sting lands because he frames it as basic arithmetic. If only “a dozen or two painters” can live by selling paintings, then the market isn’t a meritocracy; it’s a bottleneck. Reinhardt’s subtext: when scarcity is that extreme, aesthetics are inseparable from institutions, gatekeepers, and geography. Even New York, supposedly the pure marketplace of talent, runs on the same support system. The line quietly demotes the art market from heroic arena to lottery with a few winners and many adjuncts.
Context matters. Reinhardt was a leading Abstract Expressionist and a famously austere advocate of “art-as-art,” suspicious of commerce, illustration, and publicity. His deadpan cynicism reads like a corrective aimed at students, collectors, and fellow artists who wanted spiritual grandeur without admitting the day job. He’s not denying ambition; he’s puncturing the alibi. If the art world is going to talk about freedom, it has to grapple with who pays for it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Reinhardt, Ad. (2026, January 17). Now almost every artist outside of New York is connected with some school or some museum school, and even in New York the majority are. That's an interesting fact when you take the idea of making money, making a living selling paintings. Only a dozen or two painters do that. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/now-almost-every-artist-outside-of-new-york-is-40254/
Chicago Style
Reinhardt, Ad. "Now almost every artist outside of New York is connected with some school or some museum school, and even in New York the majority are. That's an interesting fact when you take the idea of making money, making a living selling paintings. Only a dozen or two painters do that." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/now-almost-every-artist-outside-of-new-york-is-40254/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Now almost every artist outside of New York is connected with some school or some museum school, and even in New York the majority are. That's an interesting fact when you take the idea of making money, making a living selling paintings. Only a dozen or two painters do that." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/now-almost-every-artist-outside-of-new-york-is-40254/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
